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Letters to the Editor for Oct. 10

As a resident of Hood River County, I chose to allow my lawn to go brown so that, hopefully, our farmers and orchardists would have more water available to them for irrigating their crops and orchards. It was my way of supporting local business and families in times of need and hardship. I pay a flat rate during the irrigation season; therefore, using less water did not save me any money. I support our businesses that rely on water to produce and grow the products that most of us love.

Heidi Jimenez

Hood River

Work for change

I’m saddened by the recent mass shooting in Roseburg. Like I was saddened by the mass shooting in Charleston and was saddened by the mass shooting before that. We seem to collectively forget that mass shootings occur every three to six months in the United States. A few days after the shooting in Roseburg, it was already becoming old news.

I’m optimistic when I think about working together as a country to fix our broken gun laws. Gun laws that, while giving millions of responsible gun owners space to own guns for sport and personal protection, also give space to violent offenders to commit all kinds of crimes.

While the premise of the Second Amendment is sound, it should be updated to account for the different caliber of weapons we have today. It would be hard to commit a mass shooting with a musket. Together we can work to change our constitution to better reflect the needs of our modern society. Needs that could not have been envisioned in 1776.

Avery Hoyt

White Salmon, Wash.

Areas of concern

The recent slaughter of people at Umpqua Community College grieves me, too. We are concerned about the safety of people in schools, theaters, sports events, churches, etc. These shootings will probably continue unless we change how things are done.

There are two areas that concern me about the shooting at UCC:

1) If the security person / people was / were not armed, why not? I think that they should be armed and that faculty and other staff who want to be concealed carry trained and certified should do so and then carry.

2) I understand that UCC declared itself a “gun free zone.” These zones attract criminals like magnets because they are less likely to meet dangerous opposition. On the other hand, with armed people on campus, a sign could read, “Warning to criminals: Some armed people are at this facility and will respond appropriately.” For people who really think the sign “gun free zone” prevents crime, I challenge them to place such a sign in front of their private residences.

There is a saying that says, “Law enforcement arrive within minutes when seconds counted.” Having armed people at the facility could make a huge difference in the rapid response to criminals.

RE: Areas of Concern - I do not know why UCC does not arm their security guards, if that is true. However, from Think Progress (and confirmed at other news sources): The conservative site Breitbart and others assert that guns were banned at UCC. This is not true. The student code of conduct bans guns "without written authorization." Under Oregon law, the university could not ban people with a valid concealed carry license from bringing their weapons on campus. (They could ban gun from various buildings and facilities.) Conservative writer Dana Loesch, who initially claimed the campus was a "gun free zone," updated her article to clarify that individuals with concealed carry permits were allowed to bring guns on campus.

There was, in fact, someone on campus with a concealed carry weapon at the time of the massacre. A local reporter explained to CNN that it was legal for him to have such a weapon on campus."

If you have random people on campus with a gun, how are you going to know which ones are the good guys and which is a person with a grudge to settle? People who are able to get into a situation where they can accomplish a mass shooting do not run in acting crazy waving their gun, they fit into the crowd until they are ready to start.

The UCC campus was not a "gun free" zone as you state. This notion has been misreported by various news outlets and often repeated by many using this tragedy a backdrop for their rhetoric.

The Oregonian noted more specifically that although UCC did have a no-gun policy, they were required by law to allow anyone with a concealed firearms permit to bring guns on campus:
Umpqua Community College, site of a mass shooting, bans guns, knives longer than 4 inches and other weapons from campus.

But that policy has one big exemption that renders the 100-acre campus near Roseburg anything but a gun-free zone: Everyone with a concealed firearms license is allowed to bring guns on campus.